Deas and Parsons join Yarnold on World Cup team

Laura Deas admitted she was still pinching herself after sealing a spot on British Skeleton’s World Cup team for the coming season.

Deas was one of a number of British athletes out in Winterberg last week for the selection races.

Last season she competed on the Intercontinental Cup circuit, securing bronze in Igls and silver in Park City – and she showed she had carried that form into the start of this campaign with a series of impressive performances in Germany.

The 25-year-old came through a close battle with Rose McGrandle to top the timings sheets with British Skeleton rewarding her with her first-ever spot on the World Cup circuit, which gets underway at Lake Placid from December 8-13.

She will join pre-selected Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold while McGrandle will get a chance to bid for the remaining World Cup slot alongside Donna Creighton – unable to race last week because of sickness – during the first three Intercontinental Cup competitions, starting in Lillehammer on November 18.

“I’m very excited,” said Deas, who finished fourth at the Junior World Championships in 2011. “It’ll be a new experience, with a new coach and new athletes to race against so it’s just a feeling of excitement at the moment. It hasn’t properly sunk in yet.

“Obviously I’m looking to do as well as I can in the World Cup but my main target for the season is to return to Winterberg for the World Championships and put down a good performance then too.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s team, Sochi 2014 Olympian Dom Parsons was also confirmed after holding off competition from David Swift and Ed Smith last week.

Swift and Smith will also go head-to-head in the opening Intercontinental Cup races to see who will earn the second of only two World Cup places for the men this season.

And like Deas, Parsons is also aiming for a successful season, culminating in the World Championships in Winterberg from February 23-March 8.

Parsons said: “The main goal of the season is obviously the World Championships, and with them being held in Winterberg the selection races were a major part of preparing for that as well as gaining a place on the World Cup tour.

“We’ll head home now and go through all the analysis to see what I can improve on - I’m just getting used to a new sled for the season so the selection races were helpful from that point of view too.

“The season will build up all the way through to the Worlds in February and I’m really looking forward to it.”